


Observations Of An Illusionist Prodigy

by Everyoneisheretoday5



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Gus canonically keeps Mattholomule’s items on his desk, Gus is so freaking underrated, M/M, Perry Porter loves his son so much you guys, This is all Gus content, whoops Gustholomule time, will update every so often
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26943883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everyoneisheretoday5/pseuds/Everyoneisheretoday5
Summary: A bunch of Gus one shots and character studies!
Relationships: Gus Porter & Perry Porter, Mattholomule/Gus Porter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	1. Mattholomule

A week after getting kicked out of the H.A.S to make sure Luz was able to go to Hexside, Gus sat down at his desk and stretched. Journalism club was easy so far, but sitting there for an hour while the teacher droned on about proper interviewing tactics had been so  _ boring _ . He was going to add a little spice to his interviews, he decided. People gave more information when the person asking the question seemed like a friend. Or it could be the other way around. Either way, he wasn’t going to stick to the curriculum. 

As he got situated in his seat, intending to pull out a notebook to jot down some possible interview tactics, his hand stopped midair.

_ Why do I still have those? _

Mattholomule’s “human artifacts” were still sitting on his desk in a neat little row, after Gus had snuck into the club a day after being exiled, and stole them, intending to make the club more factual. Mattholomule’s objects were obviously fake, and Luz could prove that. It was better that the club didn’t have them in their possession.

They were useless. Worthless. Devoid of purpose.

So why did Gus still keep them where he could see them? 

He had placed them on his desk when he got home, intending to move them later. But a week had passed, and he still hadn’t. He had sat down at this desk every single day since he stole them, and they were still there, reminding him of the infuriatingly annoying boy who stole his club president spot and ruined what he had intended to do with the H.A.S. He wanted to include people. He didn’t know if Mattholomule had the same mission. He didn’t even know if Mattholomule  _ had  _ a mission, because the only reason that he was club president was Gus’s desperate attempt to stay as the leader of the H.A.S and Mattholomule’s need for drama. 

And Gus could move them. He could chuck them out the window, and no one would care. He didn’t even hear Mattholomule mention that they were missing (not that he ever purposely went to be in the boy’s presence) despite how attached he had been to them when he first joined the club. 

But he didn’t want to. 

For some reason, having something that reminded him of Mattholomule meant something to him. Despite how much the boy pissed him off. 

_ “Heyyyyyy Agustus! How’s that dorky little journalism club going? Such a shame you aren’t in the H.A.S anymore, we’re allowed to touch objects now!”  _

_ “It’s Gus. And it’s  _ **_fine_ ** _ that you’re allowed to touch objects, even though it ruins thier  _ **_mint condition-“_ **

_ “You’re such a stickler for the rules, live a little!” _

_ “I literally broke into detention and snuck a banned student into school. I just don’t like people touching objects. Human artifacts are supposed to be sacred.” _

_ “Sacred?! Ha. You need to learn how to have fun. Hands-on learning can be useful.” _

_ And with that, Mattholomule clapped Gus almost violently on the back, and sauntered away.  _

Gus ran a hand through his curly hair as his lip curled in distaste. Mattholomule did have a point, but did he have to be so- smug about it? His stupid better-than-you attitude made every interaction infuriatingly frustrating. And  _ yet  _ Gus still talked to him. For no reason. 

No reason.

Absolutely none. 

_ Fine, it’s interesting to talk to him. It’s interesting to interact with him, and be in his presence, and I don’t know why. He just- ugh!  _

Gus nearly slammed his head onto his desk, but then settled for laying his chin on his arms, journalism class nearly forgotten. He eyed the items on his desk, and huffed. 

Maybe he would get Mattholomule to open up, or something along those lines, and then he’d finally be able to have a reason that he could admit to himself for hanging out with him. 

And for keeping his stupid, fake human items on his desk. 

And for thinking about him when he was supposed to be jotting down ideas in his notebook. 

“Hope he’s having fun being the club president,” Gus grumbled. His ears twitched in annoyance, and he sighed. 


	2. Learning From Your Elders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look at Gus’s journey, from Perry’s POV.

Gus hadn’t been moved up two grades for no reason.

It took hours and hours of work, constantly improving his illusions when no one was looking, studying from textbooks he meticulously picked out from the huge selection at the local library, and even  _ meditating _ , trying to get himself in the right headspace to be able to split his conscience between two versions of himself.

And thankfully, he wasn’t alone in his effort.

Perry Porter may have been the best reporter in the Boiling Isles, pouring over scripts and constantly being called away to take notes on the latest occurrences at the Emperor’s coven, but he still took note of his only child’s astounding intelligence and persistence, helping him along the way whenever he could. 

Perry had been in the illusion track himself as a youngster, and often his illusions took over household chores such as cooking and cleaning while he focused on work. Gus had watched with intense interest, forming his first complete illusion at the mere age of 4, with little to no guidance. 

It was  _ incredible.  _

Perry had sat down with Gus that day and gushed over his illusion, in the form of a tiny glitchy walrus. The young child  _ loved  _ the animal, so it was fitting that his first illusion would be one. It was even solid and felt blubbery in some places.

“Agustus, this is amazing! How- how did you learn how do this?!”

“From watching you!” The four-year old chirped excitedly. “I want to be good as you someday!” 

Perry smiled, honored and full of pride. He certainly had a special kid on his hands.

And from there on, Perry tried his best to give Gus extra training sessions, guiding his hand and aiding his power with his own, teaching him how to appear invisible, to make people, to imitate laughter and voices. Gus learned quickly, mastering most concepts on the first try. Perry found himself standing aside and watching, entranced as his son’s magic came to life and improved almost in the blink of an eye. He was certainly going to be as good as Perry someday, and there was no doubt in the father’s mind that he’d surpass him in every facet of magic. 

When he enrolled Gus into Hexside, Gus passing the entrance exam with ease, it was shown that his skill level was above his classmates of the same age. And sometimes Perry would find Gus passed out over a textbook when he returned from a long day at work, determined to do everything he could to improve. Perry would take off his jacket and drape it over Gus’s shoulders, kissing his head and exstimguishimg the light spell Gus had on. In the morning, he’d make Gus pancakes, and wish him a good day at school, and when he got the chance, he’d ask him how his day was, and indulge in his interests, researching a bit about humans for a new fact to share with his son, or teaching him a thing about journalism that he knew Hexside wouldn’t cover. 

And even though Perry didn’t think that anything he did could possibly express how proud he was of his son, and how much he loved him, Perry still tried. When Gus expressed frustration with not being challenged, Perry got the principal to move him up a coupe grades. When Gus came home ranting about a boy at school who took over his club president role at the H.A.S, Perry listened with an attentive ear and validated his frustration. (He also knew that it wasn’t pure hatred fueling his interactions with the boy, given how he talked about him, but that was for Gus to figure out on his own.) And whenever Gus interrupted his work, he stopped himself before getting angry or frustrated, because Gus always had a good reason. That was Gus for you. 

And even if Gus had turned out different, or he wasn’t quite what Perry had expected, Perry couldn’t possibly ask for a better son. He loved Gus with all his heart, and he made sure that the young boy knew that, in every way he could. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perry loves his kid, and anyone who disagrees can fight me.


	3. Meeting Willow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 10-year old Gus makes a new friend.

10-year old Agustus Porter walked the halls with confidence, straight and tall. His ears, much too big for his head, were kept poised up and ready. He felt his magic tingling at the ends of his fingers, and ultimately, there was nothing that could get him down. He was having a good day today. 

Well… okay, he was a little nervous. He  _ knew  _ everyone was staring at him ( _ what’s a 10-year old doing in our grade?)  _ but despite the nagging thoughts in the back of his head, he continued over to his next class, like he did every day. The halls were filled with students of all sorts, some of them who he couldn’t even meet the eyes of due to Agustus being so short, but he knew he had a place there. Even at 10 years old, he was better than all the 12-year olds in the class, and he knew it. 

“Woah!-“ Agustus’s eyes widened in shock and he stepped back as a spell went shooting straight past his head. He didn’t have time to exactly place what it was before mocking laughter filled the halls.

“Hahahaha, I missed!! You got lucky this time, half-a-witch.” 

_ Half-a-witch?... _

That sounded like an insult. 

Agustus scanned the hall for the source of the noise, ignoring the students who aggressively bumped into him and complained.

There, 20 feet away, was a 3 eyed witch with a haughty grin on her face, a spell circle quivering at the end of her raised finger. Behind her were some more witches, all seemingly copying her facial expression. It was clear that they were some kind of group. They all seemed to be leering at some student in front of them. 

Although her back was turned away from Agustus, he heard her soft, but nervous and shaky voice. She almost seemed like she was trying to make herself smaller, with her shoulders drawn close, and her arms wrapped around herself. 

“Boscha, just go away. You have better things to do than try to make my hair drip with slime to humiliate me.” 

She turned around and attempted to walk away from the 3-eyed girl as Agustus carefully creeped closer to the scene. She had huge round glasses, and curly blue hair. 

‘Boscha’ put a hand on her shoulder. 

_ Oh no…  _

Gus could feel a sense of justice rising up in his throat. 

“Ah-ah-ah Willow, wait a second.” 

_ Something bad might happen if I don’t step in! She doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.  _

Agustus ran down the hall and put himself in between the blue-haired girl and Boscha, arms out to the side, even though he was so small compared to them that it didn’t do much. 

“Leave her alone!” He said determinedly, glaring at the 3-eyed girl and her posse. 

“Oh, so you’re that little prodigy kid that everyone keeps talking about,” Boscha took her hand off of Willow’s shoulder and looked down at him, lip curling. “What’re you gonna do? Bite my ankles? I’m not doing any harm.” 

_ I’m not  _ **_that_ ** _ tiny,  _ he thought, slightly offended.  _ And you literally just tried to turn her hair into goo!  _

_ Wait. _

_ Maybe biting her ankles  _ **_is_ ** _ a good idea.  _

Not saying a word, Agustus quickly drew a large spell circle. Instantly, a horde of pixies with pincers for mouths appeared, each one about 5 inches in length. They fluttered in the air for a couple seconds, snapping their mandibles, and then… 

They went directly for the ground. 

“AHHHHHH!” Boscha screamed as one latched onto the heel of her boot. They swarmed the posse, and they ran down the hall screaming, biting feet and arms and whatever they could grab. It was quite the hilarious sight. 

For illusions, they were pretty convincing. Agustus knew that they weren’t actually doing any harm. It was just their appearance, but the posse screamed and kicked and flailed anyways. Evidentially, they were not taught in the delicate art of illusions. 

Agustus crossed his arms proudly as he watched the group panic. A hand tapped his shoulder and he turned his head.

“Thank you,” said the blue-haired girl. “Boscha is usually really intimidating, and it’s hard to stand up to her. My name is Willow. What’s yours?” 

“Agustus!” He held out his hand for a handshake, and Willow returned it. 

Before either of them could say another word, the bell screamed, the sound rattling around Agustus’s ears, and Willow let go of his hand and waved a quiet goodbye. She walked down the empty hallway to her next class and Gus had a feeling he’d run into her again. 

Well, either that, or he’d join her for lunch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gus: *sits down next to Willow at lunch*   
> Willow: *starts talking to him as if they’ve known each other for years* 
> 
> These two’s friendship is underrated.


	4. Luz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz’s presence may have been unexpected, but it wasn’t unwelcome.

Gus wasn’t sure how to feel about Luz.

Well, that wasn’t in a bad way!! And it certainly wasn’t the confusingly infuriating way that he felt towards Mattholomule. 

Luz was just…  _ fascinating.  _ And she had slipped into his life almost as seamlessly as Willow. 

The reason that Luz was fascinating, as many could expect, was that she was  _ human.  _ Just by looking at her, Gus saw all of his research about humans crumble before his eyes. Where were her gills? Her magnetic abilities? Her incredibly weakened immune system? (Okay so Luz  _ was  _ allergic to milk, but that was due to her immune system fighting off the wrong thing. And lactose-intolerance existed in witches as well.) 

She could also do magic, and was in all of the tracks at Hexside. She only could do 4 glyphs though and the mere thought of falling behind in classes because of physically not being able to do magic scared him to the bone. He didn’t know how Luz managed one class, let alone  _ all  _ of the tracks. 

Luz was kind, a little oblivious, and extremely resilient and was smarter than people gave her credit for. Sometimes when she was observing Gus practice his illusion magic, hoping to find something in the way he cast them that would allow her to do illusions as well, Gus would throw her a topic to debate on, and she’d ramble for hours, nitpicking every facet of the topic until all options were exhausted. Gus didn’t even bother to try debating with her, since he knew whatever side he was on would quickly be defeated, even if he was arguing that water was wet. 

And one of the best things about their mutual friendship was that Luz allowed him to ask questions! 

“What’s the point of adding these little extensions to your hoodie?” He asked, fingering the cloth cat ears on the back of Luz’s sweatshirt.

“They’re just for fun! Some people really like cats, and so they want thier clothing to be themed around them,” she flipped the hood over her head and flicked the ears up. “Meow meow!” 

As they were walking to school, his watch’s alarm went off, biting and screaming. He slapped it into submission, and then slipped his sleeve back down.

“Do you have watches in the human world?” 

“Yeah!! And they don’t bite either.”

“Woah!!” 

Luz was even teaching him bits of her native language! “Spanish” in English, “Español” in Spanish. Gus could have sworn he saw a textbook somewhere in the library written in Spanish, but no one else on the Boiling Isles seemed to know the language for some reason.

And yet another aspect of Luz, that maybe didn’t necesarily have to do with her being human, was her impact on the people around her. Everyone seemed to brighten up in her presence, letting down thier walls and accepting her into thier chaotic lives, even Amity, who had previously been part of Boscha’s posse. 

She seemed to have an extra-special effect on Willow though. Gus wasn’t sure what it was. Willow just tended to talk about Luz a lot, was super giddy and seemingly flustered in her presence, and blushed a lot. Gus would figure it out later. 

Either way, Gus was excited to have Luz in his life. True to her name, she truly did seem to be full of life. She let Gus ride on her shoulders sometimes, and took him as he was. He did the same for her. 

That was Luz the Human for you. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thinking of doing an extra-long chapter to tell Grom from Gus’s perspective- what’d you all think?

**Author's Note:**

> Gus may have a crush. Up to you all to decide.


End file.
